U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday urged Myanmar to address the citizenship status of Rohingya Muslims in the country's western Rakhine state ahead of a general election scheduled to be held later this year. Almost 140,000 of Myanmar's 1.1 million Rohingya, most of whom are stateless, remain displaced after deadly clashes with Buddhists in Rakhine in 2012. "The international community is still deeply concerned about the situation in Rakhine," Ban told a gathering of countries called the "Partnership Group on Myanmar." "Long-term stability in Rakhine will remain unattainable without comprehensively addressing the issue of status and citizenship of the Muslim populations," he said. "The communal situation in Rakhine and elsewhere remains fragile," Ban said. "There are already troubling signs of ethnic and religious differences being exploited in the run-up to the elections."
